Two Presidents

The economic crisis in the United States is so big that one president is not enough to handle it. Two are required.

After winning the election, Barack Obama tried to take a diplomatic route and said that in the United States there was only one president at a time. George W. Bush welcomed the gesture and quickly invited him and his wife Michelle to the White House.

But the economic crisis was growing and Bush, again, could not handle it alone any longer. The stock exchange in New York fell below eight thousand points, and several important companies for the country – AIG, Citigroup, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler – were placed on the edge of a precipice.

What is incredible and scandalous is that the executives in charge of these and other companies were very ready to become multi-millionaires and very stupid to push their companies. This is a crisis that has been cooking for many years and that no one saw coming.

Bush, in the meantime, was governing in the dark. His administration was characterized by an almost total lack of financial supervision. The message of the Bush government to Wall Street was very clear: do what you want because we are not watching. In this way, investments were made based on mortgage loans destined for failure. The party lasted until time came to pay.

When John and Sandra couldn’t pay the bank for the big house that they bought, the crisis began. John and Sandra were joined by Alberto and Alejandra. And then, little by little, the very strange investments, that very few understand, and that were based on the false supposition that John, Sandra, Alberto and Alejandra were going to pay their loans to the bank, began to evaporate. Big mistake. Here is when everything came down.

More than three million people lost their homes. There are more than seven million citizens who owe more to the bank than the current value of their homes. Many more will follow. Bush, in reality, doesn’t seem to know what to do. He urges you to go to his ranch in Texas.

Well, his temporary solution has been to try to resolve the problem by giving out money to everybody. I remember those arrogant and complacent fathers that who when their son had problems with the law, went to the police station with a check in their hand to free their heir.

Bush’s formula for rescue is very simple. Did you lose money? Don’t worry. I will give it to you. Or I will lend it to you and later you will see how to pay me back. The problem is that the rescue plan of Bush doesn’t attack the origin of the crisis or directly help the people who are losing their houses. And just as the insurer AIG and Citigroup were on the point of disappearing, other small and big companies, are running the risk of following the same treacherous path.

But the most serious of all is that Bush is taking control of, literally, mountains of money as if it was his own. In reality it belongs to all of those who pay taxes to the United States. It is not only this. He is indebted to the children of our children. And when he doesn’t know where to get the money from, he prints green tickets as if they were paper. His legacy is shadowed with errors.

Bush obtained the approval of Congress to spend the alarming figure of $700 billion on the financial rescue and it did not work. Then he said that he would spend another 800 billion, for loans to small businesses and doubts followed. And it is here that Obama came to the rescue.

As much as he said that he did not want to have two presidents at the same time, Obama had to enter the scene. If he waited until January he could have been faced with a country that had turned to dust.

It is not that Barack is a prophet or a magician, but he has a special gift to measure political times well. He did it during the presidential campaign when he won against Hillary Clinton and John McCain and in this financial crisis he has done it once again.

Obama announced, in three consecutive press conferences, what he was going to do in the White House and presented it to financial experts, that know much more than he does, and who will help him rise out of this chaos. Obama sold confidenze. And only in this way will the markets calm down. The people heard him and believed him.

Credibility. This is what Obama has that Bush doesn’t. How can one believe Bush when he invented a war saying that there were weapons of destruction in Iraq and later none were found? How can one believe Bush when he says that his government doesn’t condone torture and then the images of the abuses in the prison of Abu Ghraib appeared? How can one believe Bush when he left New Orleans to drown?

For many North Americans, it is no longer possible to believe one more thing of the most unpopular president in the modern history of the United States. Because of this, although Barack Obama does not take office until January 20th, now this country has two presidents, acting and making decisions at the same time. And two are required, because one is almost no longer enough.